Of Ladybugs and Fish

Thursday night after my 6-9pm Invertebrate Practical (still a horrible time slot but this one was on mollusks so it was really interesting!) I met up with housemates at Uni Club where we socialized with friends and hit up the dance floor. Below are German Kristin, Australian Vicki, and American Kelsi. So multinational!

Aussies frown on trick-or-treating but they do appreciate the excuse for a costume party. Kelsi and I coordinated to arrive in good, cheap style to our friends’ early Halloween party. I wore my favorite shoes and Kelsi’s leggings and red shirt, then combined construction paper, a plastic table cloth, and an old poster to make a lovely ladybug costume; Kelsi borrowed my sparkly dress and transformed into a fish by adding scales, fins, and eyeballs.


We hung out with a doctor, robot, Goon warrior, the Hulk and many others. We left for home early (that's like midnight) and slept in the next morning. We then shared a lovely pancake brunch on the backyard balcony.



This is the last week of class already and it's time to start studying for finals. Also, I've gotten quite out of shape but am trying to fix that. On Monday I swam 1000m and played a water polo game, on Tuesday I swam 1500m and played a water polo game, and today I swam 2200m.

On another note, I have gotten the hang of driving on the left side of the road (not that I drive cars myself, but as a passenger or a bicyclist), but I still have to take a moment to think about which side of the car is the passenger’s side and which is the driver’s… And I definitely have not gotten the hang of swimming on the left side of the lane.

"Sharkwater" & Aussie lingo

I don't have much to report this week. Finals are coming up in November but for now I pretty much took it easy, playing some polo and watching some movies. I would like to recommend one in particular, about sharks and environmentalism, two of my favorite things! It's called "Sharkwater" and it's a documentary about sharkfinning. The film features good information, stunning footage, and even Paul Watson and the Sea Shepherd. It has won a bunch of awards and it's a really good movie about a critically important issue. Everyone should check it out.

I’ve enjoyed discovering some of the (generally subtle) cultural differences between Aussies and Americans. So for the next few posts I'll share some of the things I've found. Hope you find my observations interesting… For starters, here is a sample of some of my favorite bits of Aussie lingo.

AJ: army jerk (relevant because there’s an army base in Townsville)
AGB: after-grog bog, or the dump you take the morning after drinking a lot
arvo: afternoon
bludger: slacker, lazy person
bogan: redneck, hillybilly (adj.)
bottle-o: bottle shop, liquor store
budgie-smuggler: speedo (also see "togs" below)
keen: interested, eager
jam: jelly
jelly: jell-o
jumper: sweatshirt, hoodie
franger: condom
Macca’s: McDonald’s
pokies: slot machines
seppo: American; comes from “septic tank” because it rhymes with Yank and they're both full of shit
shrapnel: loose change, coins
stinger: jellyfish
togs: swimsuit, especially of the competitive form like a one-piece or speedo; also - "dick togs" or "DT" for speedo in particular
tumbleturn: flipturn
woop woop: far away, the middle of nowhere, the boonies

The general greeting is "How you goin'?" and they pronounce tomato as "tomahto." There's the obvious "mate" and people do end their sentences with “eh” but people do not say “crikey.”

Me an' my mates

On Saturday, Kelsi, Marissa and I hosted a party with a bright colors theme to celebrate their birthdays (again). We hung up streamers, set out bright candy like skittles, gave out glowsticks, and baked a cake with rainbow sprinkles on it. It was really fun! I even found a fantastically obnoxious dress for the occasion in a sale rack at the mall.



Sunday and Monday were hell because I had a paper due Monday at 9am and Monday at 5pm, as well as a presentation on Tuesday, so it was really rewarding Tuesday night when I got to kick back.

The water polo team had a banquet to officially end the season and say goodbye to the graduating players. They call this a breakup. I heard a lot of funny stories from Uni Games, which happened on the Gold Coast over lecture recess. (The boys got 8th place and the girls, including myself, couldn’t go because some players dropped out at the last minute.)
Cards and gifts were given to departing players and then funny awards were given out. There was a Virgin Award for a freshman player who had played every minute of every game at Uni Games and never scored a goal; the Liver Cerrosis Award was given to the guy who consistently parties the most; the Dude, Where’s My Brain Award was given to the one who had the single most epic night at Uni Games. The favorite freshman (except they say “fresher” here) had been hazed more this year than anyone ever and had put up with it like a champ so he was given the Brass Balls Award.
Finally, there was the George. W. Bush Award. There were three Americans present so we all looked around and wondered, “Hmm, which of us is going to get this one?” As it turns out, I was the distinguished recipient for being the “Yank” with a tendency to “say silly things without thinking about them first.” Ugh, what an insult… Actually, I find it quite funny but I did make sure everyone knew I didn’t vote for him. And below is a picture of the five of us honored award recipients. We had to wear the "medals" around our neck for the rest of the night or risk further "punishment."

Lecture Recess

Apparently “spring break” is an American term... My lecture recess was funny because the first half consisted of dirty grungy camping and no showers, while the second half involved packing all my jewelery and makeup, dressing up each night, and staying at a five-star hotel. It was also interesting because in the rainforest I had no reception and I managed to take off for Cairns without my phone on me, so I essentially had a week free of a cell phone. Believe it or not (I hardly can), I survived just fine!

Part 1.
Saturday through Tuesday I was camping in the Paluma rainforest with a field trip for my Rainforest Populations and Communities class. Everything there is surprisingly dry as this area is not a true rainforest but a sort of crossover ecosystem. Activities included setting up mist nets to catch birds, each of which had to be weighed, measured, and identified before being released. We got to have a look at a brown snake, the second-most venomous snake in the world.


One of the highlights was seeing a bandicoot with a baby in her pouch; I also retrieved a bush rat from a trap. We could swim in the water hole, which was refreshing but did little to make me feel cleaner and the last night we had makeshift s’mores around the campfire - real s'mores don’t exist here.


Although I hadn’t really looked forward to the field trip, it certainly had its fun moments and I learned quite a bit. I gained an appreciation for birds and birding, but it also confirmed that marine biology was the right choice for me.

Part 2.
Four nights in Cairns (pronounced kinda sorta like “kehns”) with Kelsi and Marissa, my two best buds in Oz! I met up with the girls on Wednesday at the Hilton - we had a good deal on a lovely room, with much safer and less noisy accommodation that a hostel could provide. The girls had just spent several days diving on the Great Barrier Reef (how jealous do you think I am?) and had befriended the crew of their dive boat well enough to be invited to go out and celebrate Kelsi's 21st birthday with them.


Thursday we went to a fruit market and did some groceries for the next few days and lounged by the pool. Then we got dressed up to celebrate Marissa’s 20th birthday, joined by the fun and friendly members of the crew (some of the guys are pictured below). Both girls wore birthday crowns and sashes on their respective birthday nights, which earned them lots of congratulatory hugs from random people.



Friday was another relaxing day and our friend Jordan arrived to spend the weekend with us. Marissa and I gave him and Kelsi some alone time and went to the night markets to browse jewelry and taste samples of interesting fruit wine – mango was especially delicious – before meeting up again with the boat crew to chill. The next day some of the crew were going out on the boat as passengers and they convinced us to come out with them, so Saturday Marissa and I headed out to the GBR for two incredible dives. Particularly noteworthy were a beautiful and striking blue spotted ray, sea cucumbers the size of my thigh (see below), and a stonefish, which is the most toxic fish in the world (we kept our distance). It was all amazing but I would say the highlight was seeing a white tipped reef shark because I had never seen a shark in the wild before and had been dying to do so. That night we hung out with our crew friends again before saying goodbye and dragging our happily exhausted butts home to our comfy Hilton beds.





Sunday we had to pack up and go home, on the way stopping to take a tour of Paronella Park where a Spanish guy once built a castle and beautiful garden for his wife.


This was probably the best spring break ever; I loved spending time with my friends, diving, seeing Cairns, and meeting new people. Marissa and I agreed that it was remarkable how quickly we bonded with the divers and we hope to return for more diving with them. My time in Australia is seriously flying by and when I leave here I know I'm going to miss it a lot.